You Know How to Get Along Humming
by casualcorvid
Summary: From the day Natsume first arrived, he was something of an enigma. Or: Natsume is singlehandedly keeping the gossip mill fueled.
1. Chapter 1: Kyoko

**A/N: Hiya! There is my first fic in a long time, and it is incredibly self-indulgent. If you don't like outsider POV or silly/misguided OCs than you'll probably hate this. Hopefully at least some people are outside POV addicts like me?** **Anyway, please enjoy the fic!**

* * *

Kyoko didn't care that a new boy was transferring to her class. No, really. So not a lot tended to happen in their small, rural town. So maybe she was as desperate for literally any excitement as the rest of them. And, okay, so maybe she already tried to pump her dad for information when he mentioned in passing that the Fujiwaras were taking in an orphan. Kyoko at least had the decency to be a busybody from the privacy of her own home instead of the middle of their classroom.

"I heard he's, like, totally crazy and is always talking to the air," Ayako said salaciously to the group of students leaning around her desk as they waited for class to officially begin.

"No way," a tall, lanky girl named Hana cut in, leaning on Ayako's desk with the authoritative air of a seasoned gossip. "I heard that he got kicked out of the last place because he tried to kill the kid of the family he was staying with. Talk about ungrateful!" she added with a bit of a smirk, obviously relishing in the gasps and looks of shock this tidbit produced.

"You shouldn't gossip like that." a bespectacled student named Kazuya said reprovingly, but nonetheless he leaned forward with an unmistakeable look of interest. "But, you know, since you are, what else did you hear?"

Hana cut him a sly look. "I also heard he's hot." Kyoko carefully didn't look up, but felt a sharp jolt of excitement. Her dad had conveniently left that part out. This really was shaping up to be the most thrilling thing that had happened since the arrival of the tall and dark Tanuma.

Kazuya rolled his eyes at her and straightened back up in his chair, resuming his usual air of distance. "We shouldn't talk about him, anyway. We'll meet him soon enough."

* * *

Natsume Takashi _was_ hot.

He was thin and pale with fragile, almost girlish features. This coupled with his sandy hair, striking eyes, and soft-spoken demeanor made him seem almost other-worldly; like the prince of a fairy court or something.

"See, I told you!" Hana stage-whispered loudly as the class let out for lunch. "He's totally hot!" Kyoko's face heated up as she considered what she herself had thought about the new student. Fairy court, honestly.

Natsume himself was either truly not paying attention or had the best poker face of anyone Kyoko had ever seen. He didn't react at all to this less-than-subtle pronouncement. His long, slender fingers absentmindedly stroked over the top of his desk as he stared intently out the window. His eyes seemed to zero in on something on the school grounds, but when Kyoko looked, she saw nothing.

Suddenly, a chill ran up her arm. The daintiness of his features seemed less intriguing and more unsettling than they had just a few hours earlier when he had introduced himself.

Kyoko thought about the rumors she had heard: that he talked to shadows, that he had tried to kill someone. Upon first seeing him, she had instantly dismissed it as impossible- Natsume had a gentle air about him that bordered on demure and looked like a stiff wind could knock him over. But now there was something in the intensity with which he stared at nothing that seemed weirdly ominous.

"...and totally creepy. Looks like the rumors were spot on!" Hana continued, jarring Natsume out of his reverie. He glanced around and noticed the staring. Flushing and ducking his head as he pushed up from his desk, he shot Hana a strained smile as he passed her, leaving the classroom in just short of a jog.

* * *

Natsume only got more interesting as he settled into his new life. He had acquired a cat that looked as other-worldly as Natsume himself did. It met him after school most days, looking disturbingly statuesque as it sat atop the wall bordering the school grounds, only the occasional flick of its ear or stretch of its legs proving it wasn't just a lucky cat statue someone had left behind accidently.

Ayako claimed she had seen Natsume pour a water bottle out while crouching by the side of the road, muttering to himself. Nishimura had reluctantly confirmed her story while pulling a face; he seemed to have gotten a little protective of Natsume since they started eating lunch together regularly. Hana said he had started acting strange while in the middle of a conversation with her, his eyes widening almost comically as he stared at something just over her shoulder. She turned around to see what he was looking at and saw nothing. When she turned back around to ask him, he was ashen. Though normally unfailingly polite, he had abruptly excused himself while briskly asserting himself in between her and the place he had been staring at. Like he was shielding her, she had tacked on quietly, almost to herself.

Even Kazuya had his own story, regaling them with a tale of how he'd seen Natsume up in a tree, his school shirt and pale skin a stark contrast to the deep green of leaves. Natsume had then gracefully swung down and took off in a dead sprint, shouting a surprised acknowledgment at Kazuya as he ran away. Kazuya had sounded reluctantly impressed, adding that Natsume should really try out for the track team with a running speed like that.

Kyoko herself had seen him in what appeared to be a conversation with a tree one morning before class. Natsume had whispered something and she could have sworn she saw the leaves curl around his feet as he stepped closer to the old oak just outside of school grounds. He sighed and smiled and she couldn't look away. Though she felt silly even thinking it, he seemed to be goodnaturedly humoring a tree. He kneeled by the leaves that _definitely_ seemed to be amassing around his feet before glancing around.

They awkwardly made eye-contact as Kyoko stood a few feet away, staring directly at him with wide eyes. She felt her face flush a dark red at being caught, while he shot back up to his feet, a pretty blush staining his cheeks. _Absurd,_ she thought, that he would blush cutely while she turned an unflattering shade of scarlet when _he_ was the one caught doing… tree magic, or something.

"Um." he said, biting his lip. "I was just…. tying my shoe?" His voice turned upwards towards the end like he was trying to ask if she would believe that. Kyoko suddenly felt as tired and as fondly indulgent as Natsume had seemed to feel earlier toward the tree. He was so strange. But strange in the gentlest, kindest way she had ever seen. Strange in a way that meant bodily protecting his classmates from unseen foes and taking the time to acknowledge someone while he seemed to be running for his life. Strange in a way that meant talking to trees and having the leaves whisper back.

"Cool." she responded blandly and belatedly as he shifted nervously, looking completely uncertain. She automatically glanced at his feet, which were encased in shoes that didn't actually seem to have laces.

He followed her gaze and winced. She noticed that a twig had fallen from the tree and was stuck in his hair and felt another rush of affection for this odd boy who had kept them all intrigued for weeks now. Grinning, she threw him a lifeline. "Class is gonna start soon, we should probably get going."

His eyes widened at her breezy acceptance and he nodded, walking over to her. She noticed how he meticulously stepped around the the leaves that had danced by his ankles, so very careful to avoid stepping on them.

Nishimura and Kitamoto were waiting at the gates for Natsume and frowned at his unkempt appearance.

"C'mon, dude! We're gonna be late. What were you even doing over there?" Nishimura demanded, grabbing the other two boy's wrists and rocketing forward before Natsume could answer. They passed by Tanuma, who gently reached out and plucked the errant twig from Natsume's hair. When they got to the classroom Hana's eyes lit up as Natsume entered and it wasn't long before Kazuya was wheedling him to join the track team as Natsume laughed and declined.

Natsume was a bizarre and oftentimes inexplicable mystery. But he was _their_ mystery to puzzle over and swap stories about. He was a peculiar and welcome break from the monotony of small town life, and glancing around, she knew she certainly wasn't the only one to feel that way.


	2. Chapter 2: Ethyl

**A/N: Some warnings for sexism, light homophobia, problematic views on polyamory, and unreliable narrators galore. Yeah, I named a japanese character Ethyl. She just... was an Ethyl. My excuse is her mom is American. If you read and reviewed the first chapter thank you so, so much!**

* * *

Ethyl had lived next door to the Taki family for for years now. She used to see a cheerful older man reading to his cute little granddaughter in their garden everyday. She could usually hear giggles and exclamations and the occasional shouting of an energetic child as she passed by on her way to the store to get food for her and her husband or went for a stroll in the park. She couldn't get out much anymore with how her arthritis had been acting up, and she no longer has a husband to cook for, so she had instead completely resigned herself to the entertainment of mystery books and watching her neighbors.

Tooru was generally a good girl, quiet in her solitude and not often prone to scandal. But Ethyl had been young once too, and she knew the siren call of wild teen years, so she was extremely concerned but not especially surprised when Tooru started bringing home boys.

It was almost reasonable at first. Tooru occasionally brought home the Fujiwara orphan boy, which seemed very in-character for the kindhearted girl Ethyl remembered. Today they were still carrying their bags from school and looked charmingly studious as they chatted in their uniforms. However, when they went inside it meant that it was _just_ the Fujiwara boy and Tooru alone in that large house. Ethyl knew what kind of things teens might get up to in a big house all alone and only just managed to stop herself from yelling at Tooru to leave the door open. She wasn't actually the girl's grandmother, but still. Perhaps she should drop in unannounced, just to be sure. She would claim she needed… sugar. Yeah, that would work.

Satisfied with her plan to protect Tooru from any designs on her virtue, Ethyl settled back into her chair to read a bit more of the latest Detective Ashcraft mystery she had picked up last time she managed to make it out to the grocery store. She would enact her plot once she finished this chapter.

* * *

 _I'm just like Detective Ashcraft,_ Ethyl thought to herself with a little thrill going up her back. She was investigating and dissembling, how exciting! Carefully, she approached the front door, listening for any sounds of immoral behavior. She could hear two people talking, though their voices were too low for her to make out what they were saying. She was just about to move to the window to try and sneak a quick glance in when the voices suddenly trailed off and Tooru's face appeared in the window. Tooru let out a surprised "oh!" and rushed to open the door while Ethyl tried to look as innocent as possible.

"Hiya, Ethyl!" Tooru greeted enthusiastically, with that kind smile of hers. Ethyl automatically smiled back before peering over Tooru's shoulder. The Fujiwara boy stood a few feet back, awkwardly hovering. Tooru noticed the direction of her stare and opened the door a little further, beckoning him over.

"Natsume, this is my neighbor Ethyl. Ethyl, this is my friend Natsume Takashi." Tooru introduced cheerfully. Natsume offered Ethyl a small smile.

Ethyl narrowed her eyes in return and gave the boy a thorough glance-over. His clothes seemed tidy and his hair straight, but still. Ethyl had heard rumors. While she knew better than to believe the spirit nonsense (honestly, people called _her_ superstitious) she didn't know what might be true. It was odd for a boy to be bounced around between family members so often. Very suspicious.

"Yes, hello," she said somewhat briskly, turning her body back to face Tooru but keeping a keen eye on the boy. "Sorry to bother you, dear, I just really needed to borrow some sugar. Baking, you know. An old woman's got to keep herself busy somehow!" There. That sounded appropriately guileless.

"Of course!" Tooru responded, ushering her just inside. "Would you like something to drink as well?"

"No, that's quite alright, dear. The sugar is more than enough." Tooru bustled off to the kitchen, presumably in search of sugar, leaving Ethyl with a visibly uncomfortable Natsume. So he was uncomfortable with her presence, huh? Hmmm. Interesting. Almost like he desperately wanted to be alone with Tooru, no doubt to try and persuade her into doing something improper.

"You're the Fujiwara boy, yes?" she demanded, her tone something less than friendly. He glanced at her in surprise.

"I...I guess I am…" he began hesitantly before straightening up and making eye contact with her. "I mean, yes. I am. They were very kind to take me in."

Tooru returned with a jar of sugar before Ethyl could respond. "Here you go!" she said enthusiastically, handing the jar to Ethyl.

"Thank you, dear. I guess I'll get out of your hair..." Ethyl trailed off slowly, racking her brain for an excuse to stay but coming up empty. She hadn't seen anything immediately incriminating, but she wasn't convinced that leaving them alone was a good idea. She needed more time to investigate.

Tooru smiled at her again and reached for the door. Seeing no other choice, Ethyl thinly smiled back and took her leave, resigning herself to leaving the teenagers unattended. They definitely were dating, she finally decided. She'd have to keep looking out for Tooru.

* * *

The next few weeks passed quietly, with Tooru returning to her home as quietly and alone as she had for the past several years before her tryst with the Fujiwara boy. The most anyone did was walk her to her gate, and more often than not, it was the loud girl Taki had once introduced to her as Sasada, not the Fujiwara boy. So Ethyl went back to her books, though she now almost always read them on the porch, just in case.

As far as observing Tooru went, this new vantage point proved completely fruitless until one stormy Friday afternoon. Tooru came running home, splashing and laughing as she held her bag above her head. Ethyl looked up from the book she was reading from the safety of her covered porch, enjoying the atmospheric smell of rain. Beside Taki was a boy in a school uniform. He was too tall to be the Fujiwara boy, Ethyl thought as she squinted suspiciously. Was that… black hair? Quite long and unkempt, too. With a start Ethyl realized: it was the priest's son!

The two kids trudged up on the porch, Tooru leaning on Tanuma as she slipped her muddy shoes off. Tanuma steadied her with a gentle hand and an even gentler smile and then leaned down to remove his own dirtied shoes. They seemed to be _quite_ familiar to Ethyl. Maybe Tooru had dumped the Fujiwara boy? A girl as pretty as Tooru surely had plenty of boys after her and dating was all well and good, but bringing them home like this? Completely unchaperoned? It just wasn't _proper_.

Almost gleefully, Ethyl realized that she had never actually returned the sugar that Taki had let her borrow. It seemed like the perfect excuse to visit. Not wanting to be too obvious and knowing from her prior run-in with the Fujiwara boy that there was nothing she could immediately do, she decided to drop by the next morning and _casually_ bring up Taki's male suitors. Yes, that would work. With a self-satisfied nod Ethyl picked her book back up and started the next paragraph.

The next morning Ethyl woke up early, eager to enact her plan. She would play the long game if necessary, gradually turning the conversation toward boys by mentioning that her late husband used to love sweet things and she often used to run out of sugar when she was a young wife. She thought it rather cunning and _very_ reminiscent of something Detective Ashcraft would do.

Her bones ached, as they often did after rain, but it did nothing to deter her from marching over Taki's house, jar grasped firmly in hand. She could hear what sounded like pots and pans clanging together as she approached the house. Ethyl glanced at the window, but realized with a bit of disappointment that the blinds were closed. Sighing, she rapt her knuckles on the door.

The clanging persisted, and she heard Tooru laughingly say "Could you get that, please? My hands are kind of full."

Ethyl's heart plummeted into her stomach. Did that mean the priest's son was still over? Surely not?! Her mind racing, she carefully considered: maybe the Sasada girl had come over for an early morning visit?

The door was pulled open and sure enough, there was the priest's boy, greeting her with an inquisitive smile, as if this was all perfectly acceptable.

"Hello," he greeted, still smiling "Taki's a bit busy right now, if there's something I could help you with?" She let out an involuntary noise of disapproval. How overly familiar of him! Acting like he owned the place! She clutched the empty jar to her chest and looked him over with narrowed eyes. His already unkempt hair was sleep-messy and he was dressed in pajamas. Had they planned this?! Tooru was only 16!

Turning her nose in the air, she took a deliberate step forward. "Tooru let me borrow this, and I'm here to return it." Seeing him start to reach out his hand, she clutched it even tighter "To _her._ " she added nastility, completely outraged at the audacity of this boy.

He moved aside to let her in and she quickly headed toward the sound of pots and pans still loudly clanging. Taki was kneeling on the ground and going through a cabinet drawer, discarding dishes as she stuck her head further in, obviously looking for something.

Not wanting to frighten her, Ethyl settled for staring sourly at the priest's boy as she waited for her to find what she was looking for. The boy looked increasingly uncomfortable as they stood in tense silence for a few moments before Tooru's head popped out of the cabinet brandishing a waffle-maker, her face triumphant.

"I knew it was around here somewhere!" Tooru celebrated before glancing up to see Ethyl standing there. She bounced up to her feet, smiling sweetly at Ethyl. As if butter wouldn't melt. Tooru spied the glass in her hands and her mouth turned into a surprised o-shape. "I had completely forgotten!"

Ethyl handed the glass over, managing a thin-lipped smile. Taki used to be such a respectable young lady.

Clearing her throat, Ethyl deliberately turned to the priest's boy. "Who's this?"

Taki smiled again and introduced them. Tanuma was the boy's name. Ethyl dismissed him quickly, looking back over to Taki. "Well, I thought I saw someone come over yesterday with you!" Ethyl said, affecting surprise, "When I didn't see them leave I just assumed it was Sasada." There. That was fairly obvious, right?

"Nope!" Taki responded animatedly, "Tanuma's dad is out of town so he's staying here for a few days." Ethyl almost choked. Was Taki being deliberately brazen? A few days?

Tanuma, for his part, looked as nonchalant as Taki did, smiling at Taki's enthusiasm and nodding his head in agreement. Ethyl was completely speechless. She knew the youth of today was getting a little out of hand, but this was absurd. Unsure how to continue or what to say, she simply shook her head at them, resolving to tell Tanuma's father about what his son was getting up to while he was out of town. Surely a priest wouldn't be happy with such indiscretion and indecency.

"Well, I should be getting back." Ethyl said, turning to leave. She couldn't stomach this anymore, but she had no authority to do anything here. Unable to stop herself from shooting Taki one last stern frown, she turned and exited before Taki or Tanuma could respond.

* * *

Though she no longer went out of her way to observe the Taki residence, she still saw the Fujiwara boy and the priest's son visit occasionally. Unsure what to do she simply shook her head in consternation and went back to her books.

Her arthritis was doing a bit better these days, and Ethyl felt up to going to the store and maybe even the park. Buoyed by the prospect of this rare treat, she put her best coat on and dug out her purse from the back of the closet.

Feeling a bit bold, she decided to go to the park first. She walked around the entire perimeter of the pond and found a lovely bench, perfect to read on. She sat for a while, enjoying the fresh air, observing the happy families and laughing children. She was smiling at the site of a little boy clutching the hem of his mother's long coat, achingly reminding of her own son, when she noticed a pair of familiar silhouettes walking down the path.

The Fujiwara boy and the priest's son, Tanuma, were walking together and chatting quietly, their hands brushing occasionally. They seemed oblivious to their surroundings as they stopped to look at the pond. The Fujiwara boy reached up and plucked an eyelash gently from Tanuma's face before telling him to blow it off his finger and make a wish. Tanuma did so while smiling softly, moving closer to the Fujiwara boy who in turn was obviously suppressing a giggle, a pink blush sweeping over his cheeks.

Ethyl felt her heart skip a beat. Just what was she looking at here? Were these two boys cheating on Taki with each other? In public? So unabashedly? It just didn't make any sense. Her mind was racing trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Desperately she racked her mind for an answer that would explain all of this.

Suddenly, she remembered the plot of an Investigator Almassy novel (nowhere near as good as Detective Ashcraft, of course, but there were only so many Ashcraft novels available): there had been a young lady who acted as a kind of cover for a young homosexual couple so they could conceal their love. Yes, that had to be it! Selfless Tooru had given up her reputation to help save the young couple's!

Satisfied that she had uncovered the elaborate plot in a truly clever manner, she leaned back against the bench, watching the two boys walk away. She had nothing against… those sorts of people, and thought the whole thing was rather tragic. How sad that these kids were drawn into such an elaborate web of lies.

Still riding the wave of adrenaline that accompanied revelation, she got up and began to head toward the grocery store. This must be how detective Ashcraft felt after solving a big case, Ethyl cheerily mused with as much of a spring in her step as her bones would allow.

* * *

Having solved the mystery and absolved Tooru of scandal, Ethyl resumed her usual distant interest in the well-being of the girl, content to catch the occasional tidbit of her going-ons as they both lived their separate lives. Business went about as usual for weeks before one day Ethyl heard a knock at her door.

Struck with curiosity, she got up as quickly as her bones allowed and yanked the door open. There stood Tooru, adorned with her trademark kind grin and a familiar empty jar. Ethyl opened the door wider, greeting the young woman happily.

Tooru flashed her another quick smile before sheepishly holding up the empty jar. "I was actually hoping to borrow some of your sugar?"

Ethyl laughed and stepped back to let Tooru in. "That's only fair," Ethyl said as she led Tooru into the kitchen and grabbed her sugar container from a cabinet above the counter. "What are you making, dear?" she asked curiously as she took the jar from Tooru and began pouring sugar in.

"It's our friend Nishimura's birthday tomorrow so Natsume, Tanuma, and I are making him a cake," Tooru explained, leaning against the adjacent counter. "It's not going very well. None of us are really good at baking sweets." She grinned ruefully at Ethyl as if expecting her to laugh.

Ethyl didn't feel much like laughing. A young woman should really know how to bake. She missed baking cakes. She used to be _so_ good at it, between her son's lavish birthdays and her husband's sweet tooth and frequent cravings. Keeping her voice deliberately neutral, Ethyl ponderously said "You know, I'm very good at baking. I could help you, if you'd like."

When she glanced back up, Tooru was smiling at her with gratitude shining in her eyes. "I'd really, really appreciate that."

While Ethyl hadn't set out to get to observe the three of them now that she was quite sure she understood their situation, it certainly wasn't a detriment. In fact, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't excited for it.

When they arrived in the kitchen, armed with not just sugar but also some of Ethyl's favorite cake-baking supplies, Tanuma and Natsume were puzzling over a recipe that had obviously been cut out of a magazine of some sort. They were standing shoulder to shoulder, Natsume's smaller frame curled inwards slightly towards Tanuma as they stared at the paper.

"I brought help!" Tooru announced, setting her bag of supplies down on the closest countertop. Natsume and Tanuma both looked up with identical looks of surprise.

"Hello," Ethyl offered with a friendly smile "...and hand me that recipe, please."

"Ah, of course." Natsume said, recovering from his surprise as he handed her the recipe. Ethyl couldn't help but notice how Taki gently touched his arm as he passed and they shared a quick smile.

While Natsume listened to her tut disapprovingly over just how wrong this recipe was and how really, family recipes were the only way to go, Tanuma and Taki unloaded the bags of supplies while laughing, Taki playing needling Tanuma. They were standing side-by-side, arms touching, much like Tanuma and Natsume had been earlier.

They worked on a 3 layered marble cake for the next hour or so. Between them, mistakes were met with gentle amusement and successes were met with excited support. The three of them always seemed to be touching in some capacity. Ethyl thought that perhaps they were putting on a kind of show for her and was half-tempted to tell them that she knew the truth, that they didn't have to keep up this charade.

A few hours in Ethyl realized she had left the food coloring for the icing back in her house and announced she was ducking out to grab it. She quickly retrieved it and returned, removing her shoes and stepping inside. She could hear the three of them chatting. She peeked around the corner, curious if she would catch them with their defenses down and the act off. The three of them were taking a break and sitting on the ground, Taki between the two boys, her arm tucked into Natsume's while her bent legs rested comfortable against Tanuma.

This… didn't seem like acting. The three of them looked at each other warmly- equally warmly. All evening they had been affectionate with each other, sharing looks and freely giving touches. Ethyl was forcefully catapulted from the comfort of surety. She couldn't make sense of this. Were the two boys both in love with Taki? Surely not, not with how those two looked at each other. Were all three of them…?

Ethyl suddenly felt like she needed to sit down. Good lord. The three of them were all in love with each other. Yes, it had to be. Given the evidence, it was the only thing that made sense.

Steeling herself to go back into the kitchen, Ethyl vowed to ask around and see what she could dig up.

They had finished the icing for the cake relatively quickly and Ethyl had taken an early leave, uncomfortable and unable to process much in the wake of her discovery.

* * *

True to her self-appointed promise, the next time she felt up to walking around, she headed toward the grocery store, sure she would run into some of the local kid's parents there.

Sure enough, a tall woman named Akiko was out shopping with her daughter… Haru? No.. Hana. Yes, she was sure it was Hana, who she was fairly confident was Tooru's age. Making sure to remind herself that Detective Ashcraft would never back down from investigating a case, no matter how uncomfortable, Ethyl approached the pair.

"Ah, Akiko! How nice to see you." Ethyl greeted, "And little Hana has grown up so beautiful! You must be 16 now, wow. In fact, I think you're the same age as my neighbor Tooru. I actually had a question about her, while I've got you here..."

It took a lot of hedging and even more subtle insinuations but eventually the truth came out: no one knew for sure, but common consensus was that the three of them were... _involved._ Akiko looked intrigued. No one in that family had ever been able to resist gossip.

"Yeah, they totally are!" Hana enthused, smacking her gum "They're always exchanging meaningful glances and like, running off together, and stuff. No one's really sure what's up, but like, we know, y'know?" she added with a flamboyant wink.

Ethyl _did_ know and she nodded stiffly, somewhat taken aback by both Hana's and Akiko's easy (if a bit giggly) acceptance of them. In fact, more than once Hana seemed to imply that _of course_ the Fujiwara boy wouldn't have any kind of traditional life, love-specific or otherwise.

"Though," Hana added grandly "I, of course, can't believe he dumped his movie star boyfriend for them. They're both cute, but they're no Natori Shuuichi."

Ethyl had no idea who Natori Shuuichi was but if the Fujiwara boy dating _movie stars_ was now a commonly accepted fact, who knew what else was happening in their usually peaceful town? Ethyl felt out of her depth and _old_ in a way she normally didn't, even when her body did. With a shake of her head, Ethyl considered that maybe this was just what life was now. That she just hadn't noticed from the safety of her porch and her books, where these kinds of things were just fiction.

But perhaps she was being unfair. If she was fine with it in fiction, hell, even excited and charmed by it, why not real life? Detective Ashcraft was always open-minded and only judged people for killing, not for who or in what configuration they loved.

In fact, she could see it so clearly as the plot of a book: Famous and handsome movie star left jilted by his everyman boyfriend, who meanwhile is getting dragged deeper into deeper into a web of mystery and deceit by two beautiful strangers. How exciting! She could see Detective Ashcraft investigating it now… Or maybe even someone else. Like a neighbor of the everyman, who sees a lot from her porch and has all the detective know-how from reading mystery novels. Yes, that sounded like a great book.

Her crisis of morality almost entirely forgotten in the wake of a compelling plot, Ethyl left to go seek out the Fujiwara boy, whose dramatic life apparently included dating movie stars and a priest's son and her favorite neighbor Tooru, maybe even all at the same time. Yes, she definitely had to find him. Something told her maybe she'd found her muse for her very own mystery novel.

* * *

 **A/N: The epilogue to this is: Ethyl manages to run into Touko while searching for Natsume and gets invited to dinner, which later becomes a regular thing. She comes over and basically harangues Natsume for an hour each week. She does write her novel, which becomes a modest success internationally, but is wildly popular in their little town. The protagonists of the novel, Ester and Tadashi, bear a striking resemblance to a certain author and a certain yokai-seeing boy, though Tadashi's love life is a bit more obscene than Takashi's. Natsume is mortified.**

 **Next time: Natsume's movie-star boyfriend**


	3. Chapter 3: Hana

**A/N: Hi again! This is the last pre-written chapter, so it will take a few days at least before I can post chapter 4. Warnings in this chapter for lots of discussion of Natori/Natsume, if teenage casual indifference towards age differences bother you, this probs isn't a great chapter for you to read!**

* * *

Hana was _bored_. Class was in session, the teacher droning on and on and _on_ about… something. It was definitely grammar of some kind. Hana couldn't be bothered to remember, not when she was this bored. Nothing exciting had happened in at least a week. Even her normal source of odd and curious, Natsume, had been insanely dull lately.

She turned to stare at said source. He looked bored as well, head tilted to the side, causing his bangs to fall charmingly over his face, eyelashes fanning over his cheeks as he studied the piece of paper on which he was doodling… something. Maybe…a fox? If she squinted she could kind of see a fox. Sort of. She almost sorted. He was cute alright, but not quite what Hana would call an artist.

Which really, it seemed like he _should_ be. Artistic, that is. God knows he was eccentric and mysterious enough, though he didn't really have the edge Hana imagined most artists have. Whatever.

Just as Hana was turning her attention to study Nishimura in much the same way she had Natsume, the sound of the classroom door being knocked open violently grabbed her attention. Reflexively, her chin slipped off the hand it was propped on and she almost slammed her face into desk. She turned to glare at whatever drama queen had just almost cause her to brain herself only to find herself making eye contact with her _favorite freakin actor,_ Natori Shuiichi.

Hana's eyes widened and she blinked a few times, considering that perhaps she _had_ actually hit her head and was now hallucinating. That would certainly make more sense than a famous actor just appearing in her high-school classroom. Silence reigned as everyone seemed similarly shocked. This kind of stuff really didn't happen.

"Natori!" Natsume exclaimed, rising to his feet. He was so excited a vein was visibly protruding from his temple. Weird. Hana wouldn't have struck him as a Natori Shuiichi fan, but she had also thought he was probably artistic and it turns out he couldn't even draw a fox, so what the hell did she know?

The spell of silence broken by Natsume, suddenly chatter broke out across the room. Gaggles of people suddenly started talking to their friends in hissed whispers. Ayako turned to Hana with round eyes and raised eyebrows. She obviously thought this had something to do with Hana, which was both flattering and totally wrong. Hana shook her head slightly and leaned forward to ask Ayako's theory when the teacher's sharp voice rang out loudly across the classroom.

"Class!" he shouted, obviously annoyed, "Please! Control yourselves. Can I help you, sir?"

"Ah, yes." Natori goddamn Shuuichi said bashfully, a hand scratching at the back of his head. "I need to borrow Natsume, I've got it sorted with the school-" he continued on while handing over a note, but Hana didn't bother to listen to the rest. Instead she flung her gaze back to Natsume, who was still on his feet, his face pale. He looked… weirdly angry.

Hana wasn't surprised Natsume was involved in all this. He seemed to be at the center of most of the inexplicable things in this town. Just a few weeks ago she had seen him in what appeared to be a heated debate with his freaky cat, and at this point that wasn't even enough to make her bat an eye.

Natsume started off toward Natori Shuuichi, coming to a swaying halt right in front of him. "What. Are. You. Doing?" Natsume asked through clenched teeth, looking like he was either gonna pass out or punch Natori Shuiichi. Did he just _stamp his foot?_ So she hadn't misread him earlier, he was actually angry that pop sensation Natori Shuuichi was coming to get him out of the most boring grammar lesson on earth. Hana shook her head, vaguely outraged at Natsume's god awful priorities.

Natori Shuuichi's face was suddenly solemn, all earlier signs of sheepishness completely gone. "You know I wouldn't be bothering you here if it wasn't an emergency," he said softly. Almost.. dare she say.. tenderly? That was odd. Almost romantic. Was Natsume banging Natori Shuuichi?!

Her eyes automatically slid back to Natsume. His face was still tight and standoffish, but he visibly softened his stance and blew out a breath. His forehead vein stopped its gross throbbing.

"I know," Natsume responded quietly, moving forward. His shoe seemingly caught on nothing and he went tumbling forward right into Natori Shuuichi's waiting arms. Oh my god! What?

Natori's signature smirk adorned his face as he held Natsume up with one arm under his elbow and the other wrapped around his back. "We have to stop meeting like this," he said so damn charmingly it sounded like a line from a film.

Hana let out an involuntary shriek. She knew it. "Natsume is totally banging Natori Shuuichi!" she yelled triumphantly to Ayako. Hana _might_ have been a bit too loud, however, as this had the unintended effect of causing everyone to briefly look at her. However, she refused to be cowed. Shame was for people less busy and less pretty than she was and, anyway, she was totally right. If they didn't want her loudly talking about it, they shouldn't have brought their torrid affair into the classroom.

Natsume hastily clambered out from Natori's arms, a flush dusting his cheeks. Natori didn't seem to visibly react at all, instead letting out a deep laugh. "No, I'm afraid you're mistaken." he threw to her with a wink. Talk about mixed signals. Hana's mind raced. This was all happening so quickly and she had no idea how to process it.

Oh… it was a secret! He couldn't date anyone, let alone the classes' favorite weirdo/orphan extraordinaire! She winked back with her own charming smirk.

Natsume looked like he was back to the cusp of passing out. With the skill of a man who spent most of his days around teenagers saying things he'd rather not hear, the teacher simply folded up the note and nodded to Natori.

Natsume took a deep breath and promptly dragged Natori Shuiichi from the classroom.

This time there was no stopping the outburst of activity and whispers.

"Isn't it a little… y'know, gross?" Kitamoto asked at lunch. Hana normally didn't sit with these boys but today she had made an exception to see what they knew about Natsume's love-life. It appeared she wasn't the only one with this idea; half the class seemed to have sought out Kitamoto and Nishimura, all eager to interrogate. Hana crossed her legs as she reached over Sasada to grab her water bottle, ignoring the glare the girl was giving her. Whatever. Sasada was, like, totally uptight and never liked Hana anyway.

Hana raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at him. "I never knew were homophobic-" she began haughtily and really she _hadn't_ , he seemed pretty chill. Anyone who was that obviously fond of both Nishimura and Natsume had to be, or so she thought.

Kitamoto looked at her, shocked. His face flushed red. "No!" he burst out, overly loud, before clearing his throat and straightening up. "No. I mean their age difference. Natori's, like, kind of old- _"_ he cut off abruptly with a frustrated sound at the sight of a few offended Natori fans in the group, including Sasada and Nishimura "- _older than Natsume_ , anyway. By a lot."

Kazuya pointed his chopsticks at Kitamoto in solidarity. "Right?! I didn't want to be the first person to say anything, but, for real."

Hana was already shaking her head. Idiotic and unromantic boys, the whole lot of them.

"They're in love," Hana cut in loudly. There. That should put the issue to bed. She wasn't expecting Nishimura to scowl furiously at her and then down at his bento. Weird. He was normally all goofy around pretty girls, and she was definitely pretty enough to warrant it. Annoyed, she flicked a piece of rice at him. "What's your deal, anyway?"

"Natsume would have told me if he was dating Natori Shuiichi." Nishimura's tone was shorter than she had ever heard from the normally jovial boy. Hana suddenly felt a little bad for him. He was one of Natsume's closest friends and it would suck to not know something this big about your bestie. Hana would be totally pissed at Ayako if she was secretly dating a popstar. Hana was honestly pretty surprised Natsume hadn't told them, they all seemed awfully close. He had to have told _someone_ , but who if not these two dweebs?

Had to be Tanuma or maybe Taki. They had all been getting pretty chummy lately, the three of them, so it could go either way. But Natsume and Tanuma had been mysterious buddies since before their weird little trio had formed. Hana would ask him first. She wasn't particularly close to Tanuma. Or, y'know, had technically ever really spoken to him; however, she wasn't gonna let a little thing like expected social etiquette stand in her way. This was the most exciting thing to happen here in _years_ , maybe ever.

Tanuma was characteristically mellow when she confronted him, barely reacting to her pointy nails suddenly digging into his arm as she whirled him around to face her in the hallway.

"Is Natsume really dating Natori Shuiichi?" Hana demanded loudly, brazenly ignoring the looks it got them from their classmates. Whatever. Like they weren't totally curious too.

"I have no idea. Who Natsume dates is really nobody's business but his own." Tanuma answered with a small smile. Hana wasn't daunted by this non-answer. Tanuma seemed like kind of a push-over.

"C'monnnn…" she wheedled, batting her eyelashes charmingly. "You can't a blame a girl for being curious, can you?" She loosened her grip on his arm and gave him a winning smile.

His face didn't move at all, smile still firmly in place. Damn. Looks like this wasn't gonna come easy. She'd have to pull out the big guns. Hana took a step closer, letting her fingers playfully trail up his arm.

"We're just, y'know, a bit worried about Natsume. Kitamoto mentioned how much older Natori is." She looked up at him through her eyelashes and bit her lip worriedly.

Tanuma's smile turned kind. Ha! She got him. That whole little crew seemed downright obsessed with looking out for Natsume, _of course_ concern was the route to go, she should have thought of that from the start.

He carefully extracted her hand from his arm and took a full step back. "I don't know anything, Hana," he said, and if she didn't know better she'd say he sounded a little amused. He wasn't supposed to think this was funny; he was supposed to think she was seductive and irresistible, damn it!

"And even if I did, it's like you said. We've got to look out for Natsume, and that means not talking about him behind his back." Now he sounded a little chastising but still gentle, like a parent or a teacher or something. How annoying.

Scowling, she took a determined step forward. He blinked at her curiously.

"Do you hear that?" he asked almost absently, glancing just behind her. Hana didn't hear anything, and she had really good hearing. She had _aced_ her last hearing test, no matter what her mom said her music being bad for her ears. So, okay, that was weird of Tanuma to say. He squinted his eyes a bit as if looking something, but when Hana nervously looked she saw absolutely nothing, unless he was enraptured by the site of a fairly clean school hallway.

Hana was a little freaked. Natsume was prone to saying and doing odd and unsettling things, but Tanuma usually didn't do stuff like that. Most people, her included, thought of him as reasonable and grounded. Did he think she would let him go if he pulled something this? They all tolerated Natsume's terrible excuses and penchant for dashing away in the middle of conversations because that was what he had always been; she wasn't sure this town was big enough for two crazies, affected or otherwise.

Either way, Hana didn't want to deal with this. She backed off and without a word and spun on her heels and left. She'd have to try the third in their strange little trio and hope Taki didn't pull something like that too.

Taki's smile was also kind, but Hana found it a little less annoying than Tanuma's for whatever reason. Taki was home, just as Sasada had said she would be. That was a little sad. It was a Friday night, after all. But Hana wasn't here to judge Taki on her weekend habits. Much.

"So, what's up with Natori Shuiichi and Natsume?" Hana inquired with her characteristic bluntness. She wasn't here to beat around the bush and frankly she was in a terrible mood after her unsettling encounter with Tanuma and then being glared at by Taki's old lady neighbor from her porch as she approached.

"Natori Shuiichi?" Taki asked with an air of innocent surprise, "I really liked his new album. I have no clue what Natsume thought of it."

Hana didn't bother to resist the urge to roll her eyes. "No, I mean what they think of each other. Since they're dating? We all saw them."

Taki tilted her head in a way that was both maddeningly adorable, and given the context, just plain maddening. "I'm not sure what you mean? Oh, yeah." Taki said, understanding flooding her eyes. Hana felt her heart race. She was finally gonna get some answers! "Natori dated a girl named Natsuki in his latest film. I thought she was really likeable. They seemed to have good chemistry."

Hana glared at Taki, who seemed entirely unintimidated, still smiling serenely. Hana silently took back her earlier assessment that Tanuma's smile was more annoying, the two of them were equally obnoxious. No wonder they were always hanging out. Hana wasn't sure how Natsume handled it.

Sighing, Hana turned and left without bothering to say goodbye. She did _not_ have that sort of patience today and she just couldn't be bothered. Taki always seemed so sincere, but this was absurd. At least Tanuma acknowledged what was going on. Taki had to be laughing at her, right? Surely she wasn't this oblivious. She was one of Natsume's closest friends, after all, and if he hadn't told the dweebs from lunch or the taller weirdo or Taki, then who the hell did he tell?

"A famous actor?" Touko Fujiwara asked with a delicate frown, staring down at her cup of tea. That's right: Hana managed to finagle her way into the goddamn lion's den. She was just that good.

Okay, so the Fujiwara place couldn't really be called a lion's den is any sense of the phrase. Natsume was about as intimidating as a kitten (even if he was a total weirdo) and he wasn't even here. Hana had only ever heard good things about his foster father, Shigeru, and honestly Hana was already kind of obsessed with how adorable and sweet Touko was and she met her a grand total of, like, an hour ago. Not to mention the house itself was lovely. Hana was sitting on an embroidered cushion that Touko had cheerfully informed her that Touko had sewn herself. Not exactly Fuchu.

And okay, so maybe finagle was _slightly_ overstating things when Touko had invited Hana over for tea after literally one minute of conversation. Still. Hana had managed to find her at the store and had managed to sound curious about Natsume without sending his kind-hearted foster mom into a total panic. All in all, a roaring success.

"Natori Shuiichi?" Hana tried, her voice taking on an edge of desperation no matter how hard she tried to stay completely calm. Touko seemed like she was too nice to even consider the possibility of lying so blatantly, so there was no way she was gonna pull a Taki, right?

"Oh! You mean Natsume's Natori, of course." Hana barely restrained herself from screaming out loud. Natsume's! Natori! Hell yes! She was about to get all the juicy details!

"Yes!" Hana cried, her voice startlingly loud as she leaned forward onto the table.

If Touko was taken aback by Hana's yelling, she didn't show it. Instead she just tilted her head curiously. "What about him?" Touko asked, her tone still entirely neutral.

"Ah, well, you see, there's been some rumors," Hana watched her carefully, but Touko's face didn't so much as flicker. "About him and Natsume being…" Oh, shit. How the hell was Hana gonna phrase this tactfully? "...involved." She finally decided on. There. That could be taken relatively benignly.

Touko's hand flew to cover her mouth as she started choking on her tea, and for one horrifying second Hana was absolutely positive she was gonna accidentally kill Natsume's cute foster mom while trying to get confirmation he was boning her favorite actor.

"Oh my god, are you okay? Please don't die! Oh my god." She stood up in her panic, staring at Touko, aghast.

Hana was frantically looking around and trying to remember how to do the heimlich maneuver when Touko recovered, hand still poised over her mouth, eyes watering.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. Hana, dear, you can sit down. I'm alright." Touko's voice was still all choked up and Hana definitely wasn't convinced, but she still slowly sank back down onto the embroidered cushion, unable to stop staring at Touko.

A noise similar to the choking started back up again and Hana almost had a panic-induced heart attack before she realized that Touko had choked because she was _laughing._ She was still laughing, her hand doing nothing to conceal that fact.

"Sorry! Oh, Hana, I'm sorry," Touko managed to gasp out in between her giggles. Hana tried not to get irritated. She had _no idea_ what this response meant, and she didn't like being in situations where she had no idea what was going on. Not so coincidentally, Natsume seemed to be at the center of all such situations as of late.

Touko's laughs finally died down and she gently dabbed at the corner of her eyes with a napkin she pulled off the table. She looked up to meet Hana's eyes.

"No, they're not _involved_ " at that word, Touko let out of quick gust of air, like she was trying not to laugh. Hana was glad for the effort, as she wasn't sure she could take much more laughter. "The very idea of it..." Touko trailed off.

"But... we saw them. The whole class did." Hana had meant to sound confident, maybe Touko just didn't know about the affair, but instead it came out petulant. Hana wanted this to be true. She was _so sure_ it was true.

Touko shook her head. "Takashi and Natori are very good friends, but that's it. They see each other occasionally, but not that often. They're more like brothers than anything." She sounded completely sure.

Hana felt herself bodily deflate. Touko's calm earnestness was really convincing and Natsume loved his foster parents, everyone knew that. He almost certainly wouldn't lie to them. In hindsight, she _guessed_ what had happened in class could be considered brotherly. Still seemed awfully flirty to her, but Hana didn't have any siblings, so maybe that was how they acted. This _sucked._

"I wasn't aware Natori was a movie star," Touko casually mused, interrupting Hana's internal lament. "That's very interesting, I know Takashi has visited him at his job before. I suppose that must have been a movie set."

Hana perked back up, thinking this over. Natsume had still visited Natori while he was working, even though they were allegedly just friends. So that meant Natsume had either been on a set or at a studio. That was still really cool, even if they weren't sneaking off to make out behind the kraft services table or whatever. Definitely cooler than anything her dorky classmates had ever done. Not to mention, if the two of them were just friends, there was no reason to hide their relationship. She could totally guilt Natsume into letting her get a picture with Natori, and this way she'd be able to post it! She could totally make this work!

Though, honestly… maybe they just hadn't realized they were in love yet. That seemed likely. They were probably gonna be boyfriends really soon, even if they didn't tell anyone. Hana could just feel it.

After a few more minutes of pleasant but idle chit-chat, Hana excused herself to go home and figure out exactly what pose she wanted to do in her picture with Natori Shuiichi.

* * *

 **A/N: The epilogue to this chapter is: Natsume gets Natori to come to Nishimura's birthday party to make up for not telling him about them being friends. Hana crashes it, talks to Natori, and invites herself to visit the set of his newest film with Natsume. Natsume reluctantly agrees. Hana manages to get all of Natori's coworkers, who were already curious about Natsume, to buy into the torrid affair story. Natori, amused, fails to deny these rumors. Natsume, horrified, denies them too much and isn't believed.**


	4. Chapter 4: Kazuya

**(A/N: Thank you so much for eviewing! It seriously makes my day 3. Here's the cheesiest and longest chapter yet. Only one more to go!)**

* * *

There was a weird looking guy standing out by the gate of his school. Students often had a friend of family member wait for them outside the gate, but this guy looked like a classic TV villain: long black hair, standing stock-still and unmoving, and was that an _eye-patch?_

How odd. They still had almost an hour left in the day, and then after-school chores and obligations for even longer after that. Was this guy just going to _stand_ there?

Kazuya shook his head. He was reading into this way too much. It wasn't a crime to be blind in one eye, this guy had probably gotten rude comments about it his whole life. More than likely he had just stopped off to take a break in the shade of the school wall, it _was_ an unseasonably hot day today.

Mentally berating himself for getting so caught up in nonsense, Kazuya turned back to the classroom, determined to pay attention. The guy would leave in a few minutes.

* * *

As it turns out, the weird guy _didn't_ leave.

He had been waiting over an hour, still standing unnervingly still. Although it seemed like there was something… Kazuya squinted down at the figure trying to make out if… yep, that was Natsume's cat.

Kazuya couldn't hold back his sigh. Obviously it _could_ be a coincidence that Natsume's cat was there, and with almost anyone else Kazuya was sure it _would_ be. But when was anything ever something as mundane as a coincidence around Natsume? Kazuya thought Natsume seemed nice enough, but he just brought so much drama and so many unanswered questions to their town. Kazuya liked rules and order and understanding, Natsume seemed to attract the chaotic and things beyond normal explanation.

"There's a weird guy standing outside." Kazuya finally announced to the gaggle of students still lingering after class, Natsume among them.

"Weird how?" Hana asked, instantly perking up. Kazuya shot her an unimpressed look. Hana was always getting up in other people's business. She was so _loud_ and she made no sense most of the time. Kazuya wasn't a fan.

Though not thrilled with her eager demeanor, he didn't really have a problem with her question, though he had no clue how to answer it.

"Just, weird. He's been standing around for, like, an hour." Kazuya tried to explain.

"Oh no, not a loiterer. What a total freak." Hana responded with an eye roll, accompanied by a loud snigger from Ayako. Kazuya flushed deeply against his will. God, she was so exhausting! He was just trying to look out for his classmates!

Their little exchange had gotten the attention of a few more surrounding students, who also began to look out the window. Eventually even Natsume, who was preoccupied by doodling… actually, what in the world _was_ that? It looked like some kind of weird bird monster. Natsume sure had a vivid and somewhat disturbing imagination.

Natsume abandoned his nightmare doodle to turn and glance out the window. Kazuya was watching him closely for signs that he knew this ominous stranger and sure enough his eyes darted around nervously and he visibly paled as he took his turn looking. Kazuya knew it! Of course Natsume knew a guy with an eye-patch. _Of course._

Without another word, Natsume silently stood up and left. Kazuya wasn't one to be a busybody, but he was still half tempted to follow the other boy. But Kazuya had his classroom duties to do. He took them very seriously, s _omeone_ had to considering how jokey and nonchalant the rest of the student body seemed to be.

So he got to sweeping, even though he hated that task more than any other. What Natsume and Eye Patch Guy got up to wasn't really his business anyway, he wasn't nosy like _Hana_. Still, he was unable to stop himself from glancing out the window to see what Natsume would do. It took a few minutes of Kazuya sweeping the same spot, but eventually he able to spot Natsume emerge from the building and make a beeline toward Eye Patch Guy.

Natsume's cat jumped off the wall, and the three of them stood in a loose circle, talking for a few minutes before the two left together. Kazuya reluctantly admitted to himself that it was a pretty anticlimactic conclusion. Not that he wanted more drama, of course not. It was just jarringly benign. Natsume being friends with a dude in an eye-patch didn't even rank the top ten things weirdest things Kazuya knew about the other boy.

Intently, Kazuya went to sweep the other side of the room. This was the end of it.

* * *

As it turns out, it _wasn't_ the end of it.

Eye Patch Guy had shown up five times over the last two weeks. He was starting to become a fixture to the students as a fairly accurate gauge of an hour before class was let out. Each time he appeared Natsume silently stood and left, even when it was _definitely_ his turn to sweep, leaving Kazuya to pick up the slack. Kazuya was starting to get really annoyed. Okay so Natsume had cool and dangerous-looking friends! He knew Natori Shuuichi! A few girls had crushes on him! Didn't mean he could keep slacking off like this.

Kazuya had half a mind to tell Natsume off. It would be kind of weird because they weren't very close, but it wasn't like any of Natsume's friends would do it. They were all so prone to coddling him. Well, that stopped here. It wasn't just his right to lecture Natsume, it was his _duty_.

Mind made up, Kazuya decided to stop Natsume the next time he tried to shirk off his responsibilities for Eyepatch Guy. Or anyone else, for that matter.

* * *

Kazuya hadn't really expected to have it happen that very afternoon. Natsume was set to clean the chalkboard when Ayako suddenly yelled from beside the windows she was supposed to be cleaning: "An Hour to Go has arrived!"

Kazuya was familiar with the (idiotic, in his opinion, Eye Patch Guy was much more descriptive) nickname Hana and Ayako had given Natsume's friend, but apparently Natsume was not. The other boy turned to her, baffled, while Hana dropped the broom she was holding to run over to the window. "He _is_ here! He's totally super late, we'll have to change his name if he strays like this."

Natsume's reaction was almost routine to watch at this point. He paled (which honestly, how many more times would it take before Natsume recognized a pattern? His friend liked to visit him after school, jeez) and then took off. Not this time.

Predictably, after the prerequisite paling of surprise, Natsume set down his rag and turned to leave. Kazuya ran over to grab his arm before he could make it out of the classroom. "Natsume, you need to finish your chores before you leave. I'm tired of having to do your work for you!"

Whoops. Kazuya hadn't meant to yell, he was just _so_ tired of sweeping. Still, maybe this would be the wake-up call Natsume needed.

Natsume whirled around to face Kazuya, his face somehow managing to get even more pallid, eyes insanely wide. He looked- _hunted_ , or something. Kazuya hadn't seen that look since Natsume had catapulted out of a tree right by Kazuya and then ran away at top speed, though he hadn't really recognized how disturbing it was at the time. Kazuya was a little distracted by getting the daylights scared out of him by his classmate violently emerging from a tree.

Kazuya hadn't sounded _that_ harsh, surely? This seemed like a bit of an overreaction.

"I'm sorry…" Natsume said faintly but sincerely, carefully extricating his arm. Maybe Kazuya had got to him? "I'm sorry, but this is _really really_ important. I promise to pull my weight as soon as this is over." Or not. With that annoying and enigmatic cop-out, Natsume briskly left.

Kazuya was shocked enough by his cryptic response to not stop Natsume a second time and instead stared at the empty space Natsume left, flummoxed, as he tried to decode whatever the hell Natsume had said. Until his friend was.. Over? What? Were they doing a project together or something? There was no way the project, whatever it was, was so important Natsume couldn't do fifteen minutes of cleaning before he went to work on it.

His shock turning to resigned indignation, Kazuya leaned down to pick up Natsume's abandoned rag.

* * *

"I don't like Eye Patch Guy." Kazuya said grumpily, slamming his bento open. He had no idea why Hana and Ayako sometimes sat with him (his current theory was she could somehow _sense_ his annoyance and wanted the scoop) but today he didn't mind an audience to his irritation.

Natsume, for his numerous oddities, had never annoyed him like this. Normally Kazuya was… not charmed, that was stupid, but _used to_ Natsume's brand of chaos. It was still exasperating, of course, but it was also commonplace enough to be reliable in its commotion. This was new and extremely annoying behavior, and its start coincided with the appearance of Eye Patch Guy.

"I think he's hot." Hana said responded casually, opening up her own lunch.

Kazuya rolled his eyes. "Of course you do." Hana was always calling people hot, or ugly, or coming up with stupid nicknames for them. She was so... tiringly unapologetic.

"I'm just saying, it's weird that Natsume knows this many hot people. Natori Shuuichi, his new stalker, me…" Hana continued blithely, tossing her long hair over one shoulder.

Kazuya spluttered, shocked. That weird guy is actually stalking Natsume?

"You can't just call someone's stalker hot! What is wrong with you?" Kazuya responded, appalled. "But… what makes you say that?"

Now it was Hana's turn to roll her eyes. "I can call whoever I want hot. I'm not saying I approve of his actions, but, like, yeah. He's fine."

"He totally is." Ayako echoed cheerfully.

Kazuya closed his eyes and muttered to himself, praying for patience. "What actions, Hana?"

Hana took a bite of her food and chewed thoughtfully for a bit before answering. "Oh, I dunno, the constantly showing up even though it totally freaks Natsume out, the lingering half the day like he has nothing better to do, the fact that Tanuma totally threatened him to leave Natsume alone."

Kazuya was shocked. He couldn't imagine Tanuma threatening anyone. "What, really?"

Ayako leaned forward excitedly, nodding. "Yeah, I totally heard Natsume telling Tanuma, like _'Leave this alone, he's dangerous! I care about you! Ahh!'_ " She said in a somewhat mean-spirited (if fairly accurate) facsimile of Natsume's voice.

Hana let out a dreamy sigh. "God, that's so romantic. Also: the eyepatch."

"You can't judge someone just because they wear an eyepatch," Kazuya automatically scolded, as though he hadn't done the exact same thing.

"I can and I will!" Hana cried melodramatically before popping another piece of food in her mouth.

Kazuya still couldn't move past the stalker thing. It was completely shocking but...that.. would actually make quite a bit of sense. Eye Patch Gu- err, Stalker Guy was always hanging around, and like Hana said, Natsume _had_ looked threatened. If Tanuma, who Kazuya had once seen put a spider on a piece of paper and take it outside rather than kill it, had wanted to yell at this guy, then he was almost certainly bad news.

And Kazuya had totally yelled at Natsume as he went off to deal with his stalker… oh, yikes.

Kazuya hadn't known better then but now he did. Natsume had a stalker and Kazuya… Kazuya had a plan.

* * *

 **Phase One: Schrodinger's Stalker**

Phase one of the plan was surprisingly simple in both concept and execution. Stalker Guy was clearly trying to unnerve and intimidate Natsume by hanging around for a full hour before school got out. Natsume sat by the window, so he could easily see when this happened. So Kazuya just had to convince the teacher to cut off Natsume's view.

He actually got the idea of how to do it from his mom, the world's most experimental grade school teacher. She was always trying new teaching trends and techniques to varying degrees of success. When he asked for her help under the guise of a school project, she was more than happy to show him an old article that espoused teaching in the dark as the pinnacle of academia.

Of course this was total bullshit, and proved to be nonsense shortly thereafter. But Mr. Kobayashi had reached new levels of apathy lately and had been showing them videos for the last hour of class anyway. So long as Kazuya just suggested this for the end of the day, he couldn't imagine the teacher caring enough to stop him.

Kazuya didn't like the idea of lying but he liked the idea of having yelled at a stalking victim even less.

Sure enough, Kazuya was allowed to put up blackout curtains about an hour before class was over. This was cutting it awfully close, but it was definitely better than nothing. Assuming Mr. Kobayashi didn't make him take it down immediately, this also served to get Natsume to stay and help clean up, and keep Stalker Man waiting. Three in one; this was a _great_ plan.

To really sell this idea, Kazuya had prepared a short presentation about the alleged (and fabricated) benefits of learning in the dark. It was so good that he was half convinced of the idea by the end of it. He had successfully managed to get most of the class on-board, though that was more out of an eagerness to embrace any break from the typical monotony of school than anything Kazuya had said.

When the end of the day started to roll around, a few students volunteered to help him put up the black-out curtain he had specifically bought for this, _with his own money,_ might he add. Natsume had better appreciate this.

Kazuya climbed directly onto Natsume's desk to tape up part of the curtain and tried to casually look around. Sure enough, there was Stalker Guy. Damn, he'd have to be a bit earlier next time.

When he glanced back down to Natsume he saw the other boy was staring at him with thoughtfully narrowed eyes and an unreadable look on his face.

"Can you hand me the tape?" Kazuya asked loudly, his heart pounding. Did Natsume know? How could he? It's not like Kazuya normally went out of his way to look out for Natsume. No, he could totally play this off as a coincidence and not a guilt-ridden revenge scheme on Natsume's stalker.

"Sure." Natsume answered, his whole demeanor still alarmingly neutral. Natsume grabbed the tape and held it out, casually throwing out, "Does this have something to do with me?"

Damn it, he was totally suspicious. Still, Kazuya could do this. Mustering up his best patronizing tone, Kazuya briskly snatched the tape and snorted. "Not everything has to do with you, Natsume! Sometimes a guy is just interested in unconventional teaching techniques!" His voice rose in what he hoped was convincing passion at the end.

Kazuya finished taping up the blackout curtain, awaiting Natsume's response. When Kazuya glanced down, he saw Natsume looked upset and was biting his lip. Oh no. Had he been too convincing? He had to stop yelling at the stalking victim!

Natsume noticed his staring and shot him a surprisingly solid smile. "Well, still. I think it's a good idea."

Kazuya, almost as uncomfortable with Natsume's approval as he was with his sadness, elected to ignore the response. Instead he hopped down and returned to his seat, turning his head away as he completely failed to hide his returning grin.

* * *

 **Phase Two: Time Management**

The daily blackout curtain effectively stopped Stalker Guy's intimidation tactic, but it didn't stop Natsume from going out to meet him everyday.

Kazuya had tried to chat with Natsume at the end of the day to stall him, but the normally soft-spoken boy could be kind of rude when he was desperate to leave, apparently, and had no qualms about walking away mid-sentence from Kazuya. This was going to require something a bit more complex.

Kazuya was a great student and made no secret of that fact. It wouldn't make a ton of sense for him to ask the seemingly academically-average Natsume for study help, and obviously Natsume was not especially swayed by Kazuya's demands for cleaning help. Whatever Kazuya needed help with had to be both serious enough that Natsume would feel obligated to stay and help and personal enough that it made sense for Kazuya to be asking _him._

Ugh. Kazuya had the perfect thing, but it was… private. Something he didn't talk about often, nor did he have any real desire to. But Natsume was being _stalked_ and Kazuya had yelled at him, and just like the fateful cleaning: if no one else in the class was going to take this seriously than Kazuya would.

It had been a few days since Kazuya had spied Stalker Guy as he was hanging up the blackout curtains, and as soon as allowed himself to start to feel hopeful that maybe this whole ordeal was over, Stalker Guy reappeared. Kazuya was really starting to hate his guy.

So, that afternoon as class got out, Kazuya sprinted over to Natsume and grabbed his arm in a manner that was becoming alarmingly familiar.

Apparently Natsume felt the same way because he let out an audible sigh before reluctantly turning around. "It's not even my day to clean, Kazuya."

Kazuya cleared his throat awkwardly, willing himself to go through with this. God, emotions were so hard. "No, it's. I mean, it's nothing to do with that, it's kind of, uh… well, it's a personal matter."

Natsume's face cleared of annoyance and he tilted his head curiously. "I don't really have time today, but maybe tomorrow I could-"

"It's important!" Kazuya hastily cut in, and he wasn't even affecting the waver in his voice. "It's important. To me. And kind of urgent. You're really the only person I could think to ask."

Natsume's face had shifted from curiosity to full-blown concern but he still didn't look convinced. Damn. Kazuya sucked up his pride and added one final " _Please?"_ and was both immensely satisfied and immensely guilty at the way Natsume's resolve visibly crumbled.

"If it's that important, of course I'll help, Kazuya." Natsume said after a few seconds, smiling an extremely soft smile he generally seemed to reserve for his close friends. Despite this being an act, Kazuya felt weirdly touched.

Kazuya reached forward and started tugging Natsume along. "Let's go talk in the library then."

"So you're adopted." Natsume softly confirmed after Kazuya laid out his whole sob story.

"Yeah, I- yeah." Natsume just nodded and continued. "And you think your adopted parents might be offended that you want to get your biological mom a birthday present?" That was a pretty good and succinct summary of the insanely long and meandering tale Kazuya had told in an effort to waste as much time as course, he was on great terms with his adopted parents and his biological mom's birthday wasn't even until next month, but this was for the greater good.

"Yeah, I mean, this will be the first real present-present, y'know? Like, not just me being something with their money. I'll be buying it with my money, but it feels weird since my biological mom's birthday is first. Weirdly… betray-y…" Okay, this was getting a bit too real. Kazuya hadn't even realized he was actually worried about this. "I mean, do you ever give presents to any of your other relatives still even though you live with the Fujiwaras?" Kazuya asked, desperate to get away from unsettling personal details.

For a second Natsume looked so unlike himself- distinctly uncharitable and he snorted in obvious derision. "Um, no. That's not really something anyone would want, I don't think."

"Oh." Kazuya said hesitantly, unable to look up from the clenched fist resting on his lap. When had his fist clenched? Natsume seemed to shake himself out of his dour mood and focused back on Kazuya.

"You should just talk to your adoptive parents. You said you get along really well, right? I'm sure they'd want to know you're unsure about something. They'd want to look out for you no matter what you going through." Natsume's voice had turned kind of rough by the end, and Kazuya glanced up to see Natsume staring off to his left with suspiciously glassy eyes. Oh, shit. Why was Natsume so upset, anyway? It was no secret that he adored the Fujiwaras. Natsume was always singing their praises for even the most _normal_ things like cooking his favorite meal for him or hanging up his good grades on the fridge. Almost like no one had ever done something like that before...

With a guilty start Kazuya realized he had just been complaining about having too many parents to an orphan. Oh jeez. He was trying to help Natsume, he hadn't meant to traumatize him further!

Unsure what to do and vastly unequipped to deal with Natsume's past, Kazuya glanced desperately around for a clock. It was almost an hour and a half after school had ended. Surely Stalker Guy had given up by this point?

"That's really, really good advice, Natsume!" Kazuya cheerfully replied. "Thanks so much! I'll go do that. Right now, actually! Bye!" Kazuya got up in left in something just short of a jog, determinedly not looking back and certainly not waiting for a response. There was just no way to gracefully extricate yourself from something like that.

Hopefully that godawful conversation had served it's purpose and Natsume could walk home unaccosted now. Kazuya himself should really be getting home. His mom was probably worried about him. Maybe he _would_ talk to her about his biological mom.

Kazuya was so distracted by thoughts of this conversation that he almost missed Natsume walking off into the woods with an unmistakable dark figure.

* * *

 **Phase Three: Pack Dynamics**

Kazuya was getting really goddamn tired of this. Stalker Guy was so persistent and so creepy. Loathe as he was to admit this, he might be in over his head. He might need to involve other students.

He had to assume that Natsume's weirdly overprotective friends didn't know about this. It really didn't seem like the kind of thing they would just let go. He'd try Nishimura and Kitamoto first as he was the most familiar with them out of all of Natsume's close friends.

"I don't know if you know this," Kazuya announced solemnly, "But Natsume has a stalker."

It had been surprisingly hard to catch them without Natsume. He'd had to wait until Natsume went off with Stalker Guy before he could manage it, which had put Kazuya in a bad mood right off the bat.

"Of course we know." Kitamoto replied sourly.

"I know, it's shocking. Of course you didn't- wait, you two know? And you're not doing anything about ut?" Kazuya hadn't meant to sound so accusing, but he was honestly shocked they that weren't intervening.

The two of them shot him twin furious scowls. "Natsume very, very sternly told us not to intervene!" Nishimura burst out, and at Kazuya's unimpressed look continued, "And then he _begged_ us not to, okay? He looked really upset and really desperate and said we could help by staying out of it. He's important to us, _of course_ we'd-"

Nishimura abruptly cut himself off and took a steadying breath. Kitamoto bumped Nishimura's shoulder with his own as he continued to glare at Kazuya.

"Do you have a point or what?" Kitamoto asked, sounding very tired and very frustrated.

"I think we should take turns walking with him and just, like, _refuse_ to leave, y'know? Make it so Stalker Guy has to deal with all of us. Oh, man. _All of us,_ what if we _all_ just go down there, there's no way he would-" Kazuya excitedly brainstormed before being unceremoniously cut off.

"We already _tried_ that." Nishimura cut in, still sounding agitated.

"But you're his good friends, of course Natsume would be suspicious." Kazuya politely didn't mention their notorious protective streak. "But if it's all of us…Hana and her posse, Kyoko, me, you guys, Taki and Tanuma... he'd have more trouble just asking point blank. And we'd have no reason to comply, anyway. We could keep doing this until the guy takes a hint." Yeah, this was _genius_ and would totally work.

"Why are you so interested in helping, anyway?" Kitamoto asked somewhat suspiciously, completely ignoring Kazuya's amazing plan in a favor of a question he wasn't especially excited to answer.

"I, well… I kind of yelled at him about skipping out on school chores before I realized he was doing it because he was, y'know, being stalked." Kazuya explained.

"You shouldn't have yelled at him." Nishimura said reprovingly and _there_ was that infamous defensiveness.

"I know," Kazuya replied uncomfortably. "Even before I knew about the stalker thing I felt bad. He looked all… sad, and stuff."

Kitamoto looked weirdly amused. "Ah. So now you know wh we dropped it when he asked."

God this was embarrassing. Kazuya was _not_ part of their little fanclub, he just had a moral code that didn't include yelling at stalking victims. "Whatever. Look, if I talk to Hana and her little group and get them to agree to escort Natsume tomorrow afternoon, can you get Taki and Tanuma?"

"Of course we can!" Nishimura said, looking excited for this first time during this conversation. "This may actually work!"

Kazuya couldn't help but be cheered by Nishimura's vote of confidence. Still, he'd need both of them to agree if they wanted to pull this off. Strength in numbers, and all that. He looked to Kitamoto to gauge his opinion. The other boy gave him a slow nod. "If it's for Natsume, of course they'll do it."

Right. Kazuya had recruiting to do.

Steeling himself for what was inevitably going to be an incredibly exhausting conversation, Kazuya grabbed Hana before school started the next day.

"You remember how you told me that Eyepatch Guy was actually Stalker Guy?" Kazuya asked Hana as she artfully applied bright pink lipstick. Not the best way to word that, but as the self-appointed queen of nicknames, Hana would probably understand.

Sure enough: "Yep," she instantly responded, popping the p and managing to fling a glob lipgloss directly onto Kazuya's cheek, which he made a face at and immediately wiped off.

"I remember you somehow didn't notice until I pointed it out. Not the brightest crayon in the box, eh, Kazuya?" She continued slyly, not even looking up from her tiny mirror as she moved on to wiping at the corner of her mouth with a napkin.

Kazuya flushed. God he hated talking to her sometimes. "God, fine, yes. Look, what if I told you we have a plan to try and help Natsume?"

She shut her mirror with a click, finally looking at Kazuya. "You've got my attention."

* * *

It had taken some doing but they had finally managed a cohesive plan and had everyone on board. Next time Stalker Guy showed up Hana would distract him (originally Taki was going to but it turned out that Taki had _also_ threatened to yell at Stalker Guy for Natsume, so she couldn't be part of Team Distraction) while everyone else would congregate at the entrance of the building and wait for them to arrive. When they did, the group would be as loud and chaotic as possible, forming a circle around Natsume. Hopefully it would be too large and confusing for Natsume to get out of or Stalker Guy to get into. They would herd Natsume a safe distance away and then try and casually disband.

As Kazuya dutifully put up the blackout curtains, sure enough, he saw Stalker Guy lingering. Today was the day. After climbing down from Natsume's desk, careful to avoid eye-contact with the other boy, Kazuya looked to Hana, who was intently staring back. He gave he a surreptitious nod. She winked cheekily back, which was _not_ the agreed upon sign, but probably meant she knew what to do.

He also looked to Ayako, who nodded back. At least _somebody_ was listening to him.

They had all managed to find each other in the hallway and met up by the entrance. Last he saw Hana was loudly and unyielding trapping Natsume in conversation. This was totally going to work.

A few minutes went by and most of the student body had cleared out when arm-in-arm a smiling Hana and a visibly uncomfortable Natsume appeared.

Kazuya took a deep breath and could feel the crackle of nervous energy as the others seemed to do the same. Alright, this was it. He started to step forward, confident the rest would follow, when a voice suddenly rang out.

"Ah, Natsume, there you are." Alarmed that Stalker Guy was getting bolder, Kazuya whipped his head around to see… Natori Shuiichi. More specifically, Natori Shuiichi wearing a stupid hat and holding Natsume's ugly cat. In fact, after a quick scan, it looked like Stalker Guy was nowhere to be seen.

The group seemed to visibly deflate with the notable exception of Tanuma who muttered a relieved " _Oh thank god_ " almost inaudibly.

Natsume shot the large group a baffled glance, but otherwise ignored them as he moved quickly to go talk to Natori.

"How…?" Kazuya wondered aloud, unable to look away from where Natsume and Natori were quietly talking. Kazuya watched as Natsume shot the assembled group, all of whom besides Kazuya seemed to be trying to make themselves look busy, another confused look before leaving with Natori Shuuichi.

He didn't notice Hana approach him and almost jumped out of skin when she answered. "I called him."

Kazuya turned to her to stare blankly. "What? Why? How? How do you even have his number? Did Natsume give it to you?" That seemed incredibly unlikely but was one of the few explanations that made any sense at all.

"No one _gave_ me anything, but I still have his number." Hana answered ominously. "I figured he'd have something to say about this and I was right." Now she just sounded smug.

Tanuma and Taki were starting to walk away, and Ayako was already halfway to the gate. Annoyed at the total lack of action, Kazuya yelled out to their retreating backs: "This didn't solve anything! Next appearance of Stalker Guy and the plan is still on! This isn't over!"

* * *

As it turned out, it _was_ over. Stalker Guy never turned back up.

Kazuya was happy about that _of course_. The whole point of this was to help Natsume and Natsume had been helped. Just… not by Kazuya or his plan.

Word had spread that _the_ Natori Shuuichi had valiantly rescued Natsume from his terrible stalker. No doubt Hana's doing, and when he was feeling uncharitable, Kazuya guessed that the drama of it all was the whole reason Hana had called Natori Shuuichi in the first place.

Kazuya explained to the teacher that new research indicated that a blackout curtain did nothing, and stopped having to put it up. Natsume now stayed to do his chores. Kazuya kind of… well, he kind of missed being a part of the adventure that Natsume seemed to court. Maybe. But it didn't matter because this little interlude was over; that was the end of it.

* * *

Well, that was _almost_ the end of it. It had been two weeks since Natori Shuuichi showed up and put an end to Natsume's stalker showing up at school. It was Kazuya's turn to sweep after class. He sighed deeply to himself before standing up and reaching for his broom only to be stopped by an someone grabbing his arm.

In a reversal of their roles the last few weeks, it turned out to be Natsume standing there. "I've got it, don't worry. I can sweep."

Kazuya opened his mouth to argue. He had _never_ slacked off and certainly wasn't about to start now, but before he could let out his indignant reply Natsume smoothly continued. "I told you, remember? I told you that I'd start to pull my weight. You definitely covered for me enough."

That _was_ true and Kazuya did really hate sweeping. Still. "Are you sure?"

"Of course," Natsume replied, dropping Kazuya's arm in favor of grabbing the broom. Kazuya turned to leave but was stopped by Natsume talking yet again.

"I… you know, Nishimura told me what you did." Kazuya whirled around, betrayed. Natsume just laughed softly, sounding incredibly fond. "He's not good at keeping secrets. And I noticed the blackout curtain stuff and suspected… I just mean, thanks. Seriously, Kazuya, thank you."

Kazuya awkwardly cleared his throat, shrugging. He was just so _earnest_ in a way most teenagers could never be. Natsume's friends were really lucky people.

Kazuya geared up to make another speedy exit, still uncomfortable with emotions, but Natsume determinedly continued on before he could leave.

"You don't have to leave, though, if you don't want. How did the thing with your biological mom's birthday turn out?" Natsume asked, still dutifully sweeping. Kazuya sat in an empty desk and answered as Natsume continued to clean.

Natsume's friends _were_ really lucky people. Kazuya knew because he was pretty sure he was now one of them.


	5. Chapter 5: Yuuto

Yuuto wasn't sure what to expect.

Honestly, just the idea of seeing his weirdo cousin Natsume was incredibly strange, and certainly not how he thought he'd be spending this weekend. His parents would occasionally report that Natsume was "settling in nicely" and that Touko and Shigeru's "saint-like patience" had meant that they hadn't had a single complaint against the freak… yet. Outside of those banal and obligatory updates, he hadn't thought of Natsume since he had blessedly moved out almost six years ago.

Natsume had been one of the weirdest interludes of his life. Things had started out well between the boys; Yuuto had always wanted a brother and having a new friend his age that was going to _live_ with them had been amazing to his 11 year old self. The reality of having to share his room and his toys and even his _desk_ at the overcrowded urban Tokyo school they attended somewhat dampened his enthusiasm, but still, things were okay.

Then the lying started. Natsume would talk to himself and then insist that wasn't what he was doing. Things started going missing but Natsume acted like he had no clue where they went. It culminated in him breaking Mom's antique vase but denying it until he was red in the face, and Mom and Dad finally sending him away.

Natsume had also been deeply creepy. Yuuto couldn't help but picture Natsume and his foster parents as some sort of Addams Family-esque house of misfits. Anyone who had managed to accept Natsume so easily had to be strange themselves.

He couldn't help but snort at the idea, scuffing his shoe against the back of an unoccupied seat of the train in front of him. He'd see for himself soon enough what sort of horrorshow this house was; his mother had sent him to drop off some sort of family-related documents Shigeru had requested from them.

The journey was taking forever; this place was really in the middle of nowhere. What a start to his week off. The Fujiwaras hadn't even _wanted_ him to be visit, something about some sort of oh-so-important dinner plans that his mother had cut off with an irritated assurance that Yuuto would just swing by and be gone before dinner. With a deep, belaboured sigh, Yuuto leaned his head against the window and settled in.

"- sir? Are are you okay?" Yuuto unexpectedly jerked awake as a voice called out to him, presumably not for the first time if the worried tone was anything to go by. Oh, shit. He had fallen asleep on the train.

Yuuto cracked his eyes open and was greeted with a girl -presumably an employee of the railway- standing in the train door, keeping it open. She was wearing an interesting plaid ensemble, he noted absently as he struggled to work through the brain-fog that accompanied being abruptly awoken.

"Sir? Oh, good, you're awake. This is the end of this line, so." Relief colored the girl's tone as she watched him open his eyes and take in his surroundings.

"Yeah, sorry," Yuuto started, voice still sleep-rough as he began gathering his stuff, some of which had fallen on the floor during his impromptu nap. Great. This trip was already going about as well as he thought it would.

She patiently waited for him to finish and they departed the train together. Yuuto waited for their paths to diverge as he headed towards the exit, only to realize that she was also leaving the station.

"Your shift up?" He asked, because the silence was definitely in danger of turning awkward and he'd never had any problems with chatting with a cute girl.

"What?" She asked with a bemused smile, glancing up at him and tilting her head. She really was very pretty, if a bit slow, apparently.

Yuuto shifted his bag on his shoulder and used his other hand to gesture toward the train behind them. "You know, the train…?"

Her eyebrows drew together briefly before her expression cleared and she let out a melodic laugh. "Oh, no. I don't work here, I just saw you were still asleep and was worried about you."

Yuuto started a bit, completely taken aback, before laughing himself. "Well, that was nice of you. I guess what they say about country hospitality is true then."

Really, Yuuto was pretty sure that was just something people said to make fun of country bumpkins. Maybe she was into him. That would explain why she would go out of her way for him. The girl's eyes slid to study his face for a second, almost like she could tell what he was thinking, but she still smiled back when he grinned at her.

They emerged from the station and Yuuto looked around. It was so quiet and peaceful, bordering on idyllic. Not Yuuto's scene at all; he'd always prefer the bustling chaos and excitement of a busy city. Yuuto couldn't stop the deep sigh as he continued his assessment. He probably should have planned this better, he only had an address and a vague idea of where the Fujiwaras lived. Getting lost in the middle of nowhere would be awful.

The girl turned to Yuuto, whether to say goodbye or ask for his number he wasn't completely sure of, when his stomach let out a loud rumble. Embarrassment had never really been Yuuto's thing, so instead he just laughed brazenly. He had already been kind of dumb in front of her earlier, at this point what was one more thing?

Surprisingly, she just grinned at him.

"I was going to ask you what brings you here-" Yuuto opened his mouth to answer the implied question, excited that she _did_ seem to be into him, but the girl continued blithely on without awaiting a response "-but we can talk about that at breakfast, if you'd like to join my friends and I."

He'd always heard that country girls were meek and traditional, but here she was, asking _him_ out!

She'd been smiling, but at his gobsmacked expression, she flitted her hands around around anxiously. "I mean, of course, you don't have to! I just figured that, well, you seem a little overwhelmed and like you could use some help, so, yeah."

Yuuto automatically bristled at the idea of some random _country girl_ looking out for him. She probably couldn't even imagine how dangerous and chaotic cities could be. Still, she was pretty and friendly and he was really hungry. Yuuto glanced down at his watch, it was barely mid-morning. He had plenty of time before dinner.

"Lead the way." Yuuto responded as suavely as possible. "I'm Yuuto, by the way."

"I'm Taki." The girl- _Taki_ \- responded as she began to confidently lead him into the village. Maybe this trip wouldn't be so bad after all.

Yuuto was trying not to look put out.

He had kind of assumed that _my friends and I_ had been a way to seem demure and not so forward, but not only was it very literal but Taki's friend was a tall, good-looking dude.

"Tanuma!" Taki had greeted the dark-haired guy standing outside the restaurant that Taki had assured him was absolutely delicious, before pulling him into a one-armed hug. The man startled a bit, having been lost in thought in a way that reminded Yuuto of Natsume, which only served to further sour his mood.

"Where are-" Taki began to ask, leaning around Tanuma to peer into the restaurant. Evidently she saw who she was looking for, because she waved enthusiastically before turning around. Yuuto followed her gaze to two more dudes sitting in a booth one of whom was enthusiastically waving back. Great.

Yuuto shifted his weight awkwardly as Taki finally seemed to remember he existed and turned around, gesturing him over.

"Tanuma, this is Yuuto. Yuuto, this one of my friends, Tanuma. I met Yuuto on the train and he seemed lost and hungry, so."

Tanuma shook his head fondly at Taki, looking both amused and unsurprised as he shook Yuuto's hand. Yuuto couldn't resist squeezing hard and taking the taller boy forward a bit. Tanuma looked at him oddly, almost appraisingly, as Taki reached out to steady him.

"C'mon, let's go. I'll introduce you to Kitamoto and Nishimura; you'll like them, they're fun." Taki said, leading the two boys inside.

Despite the fact that Taki seemed to only be friends with men who obviously had crushes on her, Yuuto actually was having a good time. Kitamoto and Nishimura _were_ fun and soon Yuuto found himself laughing and making jokes with the rest of them as they waited for their food to arrive.

"So," Nishimura began grandly after a lull in conversation, "Let us commence this meeting." Yuuto shot a baffled glance as Taki who just smiled and shook her head, and then at Kitamoto who rolled his eyes. Taki sure as hell hadn't mentioned any sort of meeting.

"It's not really a formal _meeting_ ," Tanuma started to reassure him only to be interrupted immediately by Nishimura.

"Yes, it is! This is very serious business! We missed last year. This year has to be amazing and will require careful planning and execution."

"What-?" Yuuto asked with raised eyebrows.

"Our friend's birthday! It's today, which we _just found out earlier this morning_ , thank you, _Tanuma_. We've got to figure out how we're gonna surprise him."

Tanuma raised his hands defensively. "He said he didn't want to do anything!" Tanuma replied with the wary air of a person who had definitely said this before and had been summarily ignored.

"If this guy doesn't want anything, why bother?" Yuuto asked, baffled. He _hated_ planning other people's parties. If the dude wanted a birthday party, he could arrange it himself.

"No, no," Kitamoto said, sounding a bit sharp with Yuuto for the first time in the almost two hours they had all been hanging out. "Our friend is… he's special, yeah? He'd never actually ask for anything for himself, even if he really wanted it."

"Exactly!" Nishimura burst out. "Which is why we've gotta do it anyway, just in case. Show him that even if he doesn't care enough about his birthday to celebrate, we do." The rest of the table nodded solemnly.

Yuuto had plenty of buddies. People he could hang with, people he could party with, people he considered friends. He couldn't remember caring about or being cared for in return a single one of them this much, let alone having four people this devoted to his happiness. Yuuto hadn't known these four long but he already knew they were funny and cool. Whoever this guy was, he was insanely lucky.

Yuuto had tuned out most of the party planning around the time streamers were brought up, lost in his own thoughts (and kind of bored, of he was being honest, party planning held no interest to him) only dialing back in when Nishimura suddenly sprang to his feet.

"Okay, I'll go tell Hana and Kyoko and Kazuya, and hopefully between the three of them, word'll get out fast enough. Remember, Kitamoto, you've gotta clear it with his mom while he's out with his dad."

Without waiting for a response, Nishimura took off, leaving Kitamoto yelling "Hey! You didn't pay for your food!" after him.

There was a beat, and then Taki started laughing and it set the rest of them off giggling helplessly. The birthday boy was definitely, definitely lucky.

After a few minutes, and a few light-hearted arguments over who would pay for Nishimura's meal (which resulted in a tic-tac-toe competition Tanuma won. It wasn't until they all got their bills that Yuuto realized that Tanuma winning meant he was the one to pay. What was _with_ these people?!), Kitamoto took his leave as well. As he walked out the door, he casually tossed out that he would see the other two tonight at the Fujiwaras.

Wait.

 _What?_

It had to be a mistake. Or maybe there were more than one Fujiwaras? No, that was stupid, there was no way in a town this size, and if more of his distant relatives lived here, he would know. Maybe the Fujiwaras had had another son or- or took in another kid?

 _Anything_ made more sense than his creepy liar of a cousin amassing the loyalty of such cool people.

Yuuto realized he had dropped his drink in shock when Taki sprang into action, grabbing a fistful of napkins to clean it up while Tanuma looked at him in concern, asking of he was alright.

"I-" Yuuto began in a strangled, off-kilter voice. Awkwardly he cleared his throat. "What's the name of this friend of yours?"

Tanuma looked both baffled and concerned as he slowly answered. "Natsume Takashi….?"

Yuuto let out a slightly hysterical laugh. Taki stopped her mopping up of the drink and instead turned to stare at him, her and Tanuma wearing identical expressions of pure confusion.

"Do you know him…?" Taki prompted when Yuuto simply sat stunned for another few beats.

"He's my cousin!" Yuuto burst out, louder than he intended in his shock. "You're friends with Natsume? No fucking way. That… that _freak_? That's who you're all going to all this trouble for? Maybe- maybe you don't know him well yet. He's a liar who causes nothing but trouble."

Tanuma and Taki's expressions had been slowly morphing from surprise to something else while Yuuto was talking. When Yuuto finished, Taki's mouth snapped shut. Yuuto knew what an angry woman looked like, and Taki wasn't just angry. She looked _furious._ This was going all wrong.

"Yuuto? You're Natsume's cousin? He lived with your family?" Tanuma's voice was soft as he asked, and Yuuto clung to that understanding.

"Yeah, like I said. It _sucked_. He kept me up half the night with his stupid night terrors, even when we moved him to the living room, they still kept me up. He was always so creepy…" Yuuto looked between them, searching their eyes. "How did he manage to trick you into becoming friends with him?"

Taki abruptly threw the wad of soaked napkins at him. Yuuto yelled in shock and disgust and barely managed to fling them away from his face in time to see Taki turn sharply on her heel and march out of the restaurant.

Yuuto turned, outraged, to Tanuma. "What a bitch!" he exclaimed, still shocked.

Tanuma took a deep breath, not visibly acknowledging what he said, though Yuuto noted with some trepidation that Tanuma's fists were turning white from strain as he gripped the edge of the table.

"No, you deserved that." Tanuma's voice was still soft. "I don't know how old you were or how much damage you did."

Yuuto could only stare in indignation. Yeah, right. The damage _he_ did?

"Stay away from Natsume. It's his birthday, can't you at least let him have that?" Without waiting for an answer, Tanuma rose from his seat and briskly exited.

Yuuto didn't answer to these people, and he definitely hadn't known it was Natsume's birthday, they had never celebrated it when Natsume lived with his family (and Yuuto viciously squashed the echo of Tanuma's _the damage you did_ accusation after that thought)). It wasn't like he was going out his way to crash Natsume's birthday party.

' _Never actually ask for anything for himself'_ Kitamoto had said. What a load of shit. Frankly Yuuto felt sorry for the lot of them; they seemed really cool, and Natsume had obviously put on a hell of a show to get them wrapped around his finger like this.

He had come with the intention of seeing how messed up his weird cousin's life had turned out and drop off some of said weird cousin's documents. But now it seemed like maybe he had an obligation to these kind-hearted, naive people who were taken in by Natsume's machinations.

The more he thought about it, the more the idea of attending this farce of a party made sense.

As it turns out, Yuuto couldn't have slipped in and gotten the documents before Natsume's party anyway, because it took him _forever_ to find the Fujiwara house anyway.

By the time Yuuto was sure he had found the right address, the sun was beginning to set and the house looked weirdly empty. Maybe they had given up on a party after all?

Yuuto approached the front door and lightly knocked. There was a beat and then the outbreak of quiet mutters, Yuuto couldn't make out most of it but managed to catch the voice of Nishimura exclaiming "But I thought we were all here? Why would Natsume knock?" before being shushed.

After a few more seconds a high voice called out "Come in!"

Yuuto pushed the door open and was immediately bombarded with confetti as a large group of people burst out from behind various pieces of furniture and ran towards the entryway, an extremely uncoordinated chorus of _surprise!_ ringing out in their wake.

"You're not Natsume." A girl Yuuto hadn't met yet noted shyly, causing an abrupt halt to the celebrations.

"Uh, no." Yuuto managed to respond.

"Who _are_ you?" A girl wearing an alarming amount of pink asked interestedly.

"Oh no, you're not another celebrity, are you?" A bespectacled boy groaned out. _What?_

"No, he's not." Tanuma responded, taking a step toward Yuuto. Behind him, Taki, Kitamoto, and Nishimura glared viciously. So they had evidently been filled in. Great.

Before he could approach, a hand grabbed Tanuma's arm to get his attention- wait, was that Natori Shuuichi?! _Well, that explained the celebrity comment,_ Yuuto thought hysterically as Natori Shuuichi told Tanuma that he would take care of it.

"Where's Touko?" Yuuto asked the room at large, pointedly not making eye contact with the group of people that looked ready to straight up murder him.

"Natsume's mom? She went to get Natsume and Shigeru- they were taking _forever_." Whined the girl next to the one donned in mostly pink.

"Speaking of," said another boy from the window, "They're here! Everyone hide again!"

Yuuto found himself being yanked unceremoniously behind a wall by the famous idol _Natori Shuuichi._

"So," Natori Shuuichi said conversationally, his face unnervingly blank as he watched the others giggle and scramble to find a place to hide. "I hear you might cause Natsume trouble. Natsume is a friend of mine, and I don't like _things-_ " Natori's mouth curled into a snarl, the first indication of any expression Yuuto had seen so far "- that cause my friends trouble. If I see you causing him trouble, well. I might have to be irrational about it."

Yuuto was being threatened. Yuuto was being threatened by goddamn Natori Shuuichi, who was apparently his weird cousin's close friend. What the _fuck._

Before Yuuto could even begin to formulate a response, the door was opened and a celebration of said weird cousin enthusiastically commenced.

In the half hour or so of greeting and yelling and general party-starting that Yuuto had to suffer through before he had a chance to drop off the documents, Yuuto had been threatened by _six_ different people. Six! Some of these people didn't even know who he was, they just saw how the other's reacted to him, or saw how Natsume looked shocked and a little horrified to see him.

Yuuto was standing off to the side of the room by himself, staring forlornly out the window. This was _miserable._ Yuuto was taken back to those awful first weeks Natsume was staying with him and the other kids took his side before learning what a freak and liar Natsume was.

A shy looking girl who seemed content to stand to the side, just watching, eventually approached him.

"Hi, I'm Kyoko." She introduced quietly, leaning against the wall beside Yuuto.

"Yuuto." He said shortly. Across the room the girl dressed in pink- Hana, he had heard someone else call her- winked salaciously before running her hot pink nail across her throat. Beside her, Kazuya glared as menacingly as a beanpole in wire frames could at him.

"No one here likes you much, huh?" Kyoko mused. She didn't sound angry or judgmental, just curious.

Yuuto gritted his teeth. They sat in silence for a few minutes before he spat out, "I just _don't get it._ You all seem smart. Well-" Yuuto amended, watching Nishimura attempt to get a game of limbo going. "- _most_ of you seem smart. Why are you so taken in by Natsume? He's a freak."

Kyoko seemed to ponder this before answering.

"He _is_ strange." She eventually agreed lightly.

Yuuto snorted. "Don't let anyone else hear you or you'll start getting threatened too."

Kyoko shook her head lightly at this. "Strange isn't bad, Yuuto. Natsume is strange, and kind, and odd, and interesting. All of these things can be true."

"I just _don't get it."_ Yuuto repeated desperately. He really didn't. Yuuto had friends. He knew how to make friends. You had to be normal. You had to fit in. You had to hide anything that made you- made you a freak. Natsume was incapable of blending in. He always, _always_ stood out. Yuuto didn't understand how Natsume could have both. Yuuto could so clearly see NAtsume was different. Why couldn't they?

"Maybe you don't have to." Kyoko responded.

"What?" Yuuto asked, not following.

"Maybe you don't have to understand." Kyoko repeated. At Yuuto's uncomprehending expression, Kyoko sighed. "Yuuto, there's not a person in this room that completely understands Natsume. He's the strangest person I've ever met, and I'd be willing to bet that's true for everyone. I don't understand much of what he does or why he does it. I don't understand _him…_ "

Kyoko's voice grew even quieter. _"_ I'm not sure there's a person alive that does." She continued, almost to herself. "But I don't have to understand him to know that he's _kind_."

"Kind." Yuuto repeated flatly, even as his mind raced to understand what Kyoko had said.

"Yes, kind. But don't take my word it, talk to him. Then maybe you'll see what we see." With that Kyoko pushed off the wall and went to join the fray of activity that followed Natsume.

It took a few hours for Yuuto to be able to catch Natsume alone.

Natsume had slipped outside with his piece of cake (lovingly chosen by Nishimura for "maximum deliciousness") that a strange old lady had dropped off halfway through the party. While everyone ate happily ate, Yuuto had reluctantly put down his piece and followed his cousin.

It took a second for Yuuto to figure out where Natsume had gone off to. He was crouched, one leg on the ground, the other drawn up to his chest as he strangely, inexplicably held his piece of cake behind his back. Yuuto creeped closer as quietly as he could, trying to figure out what exactly he was looking at.

A small fox sat right next to Natsume, who in turn was using his free hand to pet it. "I love it, thank you!" Natsume whispered excitedly as the fox squeaked.

Natsume laughed, and with a jolt, Yuuto realized that in the months that Natsume had lived with them, he had never heard the other boy laugh.

"I brought you something," Natsume continued and brought the piece of cake around with a flourish. "It's sweet, I hope you like it." Instead of going for the food, like Yuuto would expect of any animal, the fox launched itself at Natsume, who hugged the fox gently.

The fox eventually dragged the plate away while Natsume called softly after it, "See you soon!"

It was like nothing Yuuto had ever seen. It was strange. It wasn't normal. Yuuto didn't understand it.

But it had been kind.

"Hey," Yuuto softly greeted, a minute or two after the fox had scampered off. Natsume started violently, whirling around to face Yuuto.

"Hey." Natsume greeted, not exactly short, but… cautious.

Suddenly Yuuto had no idea what to say. "I, uh… I gave those documents to your… um, mom." It was how everyone else had referred to Touko. Natsume glanced sharply up at Yuuto's face, and Yuuto just _knew_ that the other boy was looking to see if he was being made fun of.

Yuuto had no clue what Natsume saw in his expression, but whatever it was caused him to relax minutely. "Thank you for bringing them by." Natsume said politely.

"Oh, uh…. Yeah." Yuuto replied. An unbearably awkward silence followed.

After two agonizing minutes that felt like two hours, Natsume took a step towards the house.

"Wait!" Yuuto burst out. Natsume dutifully stopped, staring at Yuuto with a mix of curiosity and trepidation. Yuuto looked at the ground.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Natsume." Yuuto's voice was shaking and he had no idea why.

"What?" Natsume asked, sounding completely shocked.

"Don't make me say it again." Yuuto blew out a breath. "But I mean it… I- I wasn't fair to you growing up, and neither was my family, and I'm sorry."

It was almost a full minute before Yuuto had the courage to glance up, fully expecting Natsume to be furious. An apology given many years too late, by someone who only realized they were sorry like ten minutes ago, and didn't even think about what to say or how to-

Natsume was smiling. It was watery, but sincere.

They talked for a bit longer before heading back inside. Natsume quietly talked to some of his friends while Yuuto sat with Shigeru, Touko, and Kyoko, who, upon seeing him enter with Natsume, shot him a pleased smile he couldn't help but return.. Natsume and his friends gradually ambled back over, Nishimura enthusiastically advocating for a game of Clue.

Yuuto had no idea what Natsume said to them, but with varying degrees of caution and reluctance, he was brought back into fold, treated as a friend instead of an enemy.

There were games, and Hana had somehow managed to cheat at _Scrabble_ while Kazuya frantically flipped through the rulebook. During charades Natsume slipped on some confetti straight into Natori Shuuichi's arms while Ayako shrieked delightedly. There were presents and pictures and Yuuto's stomach hurt from laughing.

The night was winding down and Yuuto knew he had to get going soon if he wanted to catch the train. Natsume offered to walk him to the train station.

The journey was mostly silent, though miraculously, it wasn't especially awkward. When they arrived Natsume grinned wryly at him. "Thanks for coming to my birthday party."

Yuuto grinned back for a beat before shocking both of them by grabbing Natsume in a rough and quick hug.

"It was fun. Your friends are… they're really amazing."

"Yeah, they are." Natsume said softly.

"I'm glad. You deserve it." Yuuto said, and was happy to realize he meant it. Natsume got that same watery smile on his face from earlier. "I really am sorry."

"...Thank you, Yuuto. I forgive you." Natsume said tremulously, sincerity pouring through every word.

Yuuto was shocked… he didn't- he wasn't expecting forgiveness, especially not so easily, but maybe not _ever_. Yuuto didn't get it. He had made Natsume's life a living hell, and had come here with the intent to do that again. He didn't understand how anyone could forgive that after one night. He didn't understand.

But maybe he didn't have to.

Heart lighter than he could ever remember it being, Yuuto got on the train with a promise that he'd see Natsume soon. A promise he intended to keep.

Just as the train was leaving, Yuuto could make out the sight of Natsume's friends tumbling down the road to join him, the mass of them waving.


End file.
